Bringing together the voices of leading experts in the field, this edition offers an up-to-date and diverse review of the best in social policy scholarship over the past year. The book considers a ...
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Bringing together the voices of leading experts in the field, this edition offers an up-to-date and diverse review of the best in social policy scholarship over the past year. The book considers a range of current issues and critical debates in UK and international social policy. It contains vital research, including discussions on the changing landscape of welfare in the UK and Europe more widely since the 2008/09 crisis, the continuing impact of austerity on social policy areas such as the NHS, social care and disability, the financialisation of pensions and corporatisation of welfare as well as topical contributions on the ‘Air Jamaica generation’ and the Alt-Right from a social policy perspective.
Published in association with the SPA, this comprehensive analysis of the current state of social policy will be of interest to students and academics in social policy, social welfare and related disciplines.
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Social Policy Review 31 : Analysis and Debate in Social Policy, 2019

Published in print: 2019-06-01

Bringing together the voices of leading experts in the field, this edition offers an up-to-date and diverse review of the best in social policy scholarship over the past year. The book considers a range of current issues and critical debates in UK and international social policy. It contains vital research, including discussions on the changing landscape of welfare in the UK and Europe more widely since the 2008/09 crisis, the continuing impact of austerity on social policy areas such as the NHS, social care and disability, the financialisation of pensions and corporatisation of welfare as well as topical contributions on the ‘Air Jamaica generation’ and the Alt-Right from a social policy perspective.
Published in association with the SPA, this comprehensive analysis of the current state of social policy will be of interest to students and academics in social policy, social welfare and related disciplines.

This book looks at the background to and causes of the global economic crisis that erupted in 2008 and is with us still. It does this by revisiting a classic book of the past, John Kenneth ...
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This book looks at the background to and causes of the global economic crisis that erupted in 2008 and is with us still. It does this by revisiting a classic book of the past, John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Affluent Society. Each chapter takes a major theme of his book, distils Galbraith’s arguments and then discusses to what extent they cast light on current developments, both in the developed economies and in the economics discipline. The themes include: inequality, insecurity, inflation, debt, consumer behaviour, ‘financialisation’, the economic role of government (‘social balance’), the power of ideas, the role of power in the economy and the nature of the good society. These are enduring concerns for citizens, no more than now as governments, businesses and consumers seek to recover from the economic tsunami that washed over the major Western economies (and is yet to fully recede). As such, the book deals with the big current problems of capitalism and the huge challenges facing democratic governments in tackling them. The book argues that orthodox economic models and policy advice failed spectacularly to warn of impending crisis and has subsequently failed to help lift the struggling advanced economies back on the path to sustainable prosperity. It concludes that although much has happened, in the global economy and in the discipline of economics, since Galbraith wrote, many of the themes he raised and answers he provided remain relevant today.Less

The Affluent Society Revisited

Mike Berry

Published in print: 2013-12-05

This book looks at the background to and causes of the global economic crisis that erupted in 2008 and is with us still. It does this by revisiting a classic book of the past, John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Affluent Society. Each chapter takes a major theme of his book, distils Galbraith’s arguments and then discusses to what extent they cast light on current developments, both in the developed economies and in the economics discipline. The themes include: inequality, insecurity, inflation, debt, consumer behaviour, ‘financialisation’, the economic role of government (‘social balance’), the power of ideas, the role of power in the economy and the nature of the good society. These are enduring concerns for citizens, no more than now as governments, businesses and consumers seek to recover from the economic tsunami that washed over the major Western economies (and is yet to fully recede). As such, the book deals with the big current problems of capitalism and the huge challenges facing democratic governments in tackling them. The book argues that orthodox economic models and policy advice failed spectacularly to warn of impending crisis and has subsequently failed to help lift the struggling advanced economies back on the path to sustainable prosperity. It concludes that although much has happened, in the global economy and in the discipline of economics, since Galbraith wrote, many of the themes he raised and answers he provided remain relevant today.

In this introductory chapter I consider the diverse meanings of the idea of debt in the contemporary world. Starting with the current problem of apparently ever-expanding debt, I explain the origins ...
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In this introductory chapter I consider the diverse meanings of the idea of debt in the contemporary world. Starting with the current problem of apparently ever-expanding debt, I explain the origins of the globalisation of the condition of indebtedness through a discussion of processes of financialisation, where money is entirely virtual and weightless. In order to situate the idea of financialisation in a sociological context, I show how the financial crisis of 2007-2008 gave weight to the weightless fictitious capital of the fully financialised world in the form of the dead weight of debt that crushes the indebted and creates a new power relation, which Maurizio Lazzarato writes of in terms of the creditor / debtor relation. While economics tends to conceive of debt in terms of number and objective mathematical calculation, the idea of the weight of debt focus upon the subjective experience of indebtedness founded upon a particular subordinate subject position, the debtor, which it then becomes possible to understand sociologically and critically oppose on the basis of different value systems.Less

Introduction: towards a sociology of debt

Published in print: 2019-05-08

In this introductory chapter I consider the diverse meanings of the idea of debt in the contemporary world. Starting with the current problem of apparently ever-expanding debt, I explain the origins of the globalisation of the condition of indebtedness through a discussion of processes of financialisation, where money is entirely virtual and weightless. In order to situate the idea of financialisation in a sociological context, I show how the financial crisis of 2007-2008 gave weight to the weightless fictitious capital of the fully financialised world in the form of the dead weight of debt that crushes the indebted and creates a new power relation, which Maurizio Lazzarato writes of in terms of the creditor / debtor relation. While economics tends to conceive of debt in terms of number and objective mathematical calculation, the idea of the weight of debt focus upon the subjective experience of indebtedness founded upon a particular subordinate subject position, the debtor, which it then becomes possible to understand sociologically and critically oppose on the basis of different value systems.

This chapter charts the death of public housing from its emergence as part of a wider collective resistance to the social murder of unregulated capitalism to its planned demise under neoliberal ...
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This chapter charts the death of public housing from its emergence as part of a wider collective resistance to the social murder of unregulated capitalism to its planned demise under neoliberal policies of privatisation, demunicipalisation, deregulation, and austerity. A first section explains how public housing represented both the partial decommodification of shelter and the protection of residents’ health and safety through a wider system of building regulation and control. A second section argues that these qualities made public housing a target for privatisation and demunicipalisation policies that have recommodified and financialised housing and land for profit-seeking corporate interests. It was in this context that ‘outsourced regeneration’ featured in this book was born with the launch in 2000 of New Labour’s Decent Homes programme to bring all social housing in England up to a minimum decent standard by 2010. The chapter ends with an explanation of how the assault on public housing has been accompanied by the rolling back of building regulations and the rolling out of self-regulation that has weakened building safety and residents’ ability to hold their landlords to account.Less

Privatisation and the death of public housing

Stuart Hodkinson

Published in print: 2019-05-01

This chapter charts the death of public housing from its emergence as part of a wider collective resistance to the social murder of unregulated capitalism to its planned demise under neoliberal policies of privatisation, demunicipalisation, deregulation, and austerity. A first section explains how public housing represented both the partial decommodification of shelter and the protection of residents’ health and safety through a wider system of building regulation and control. A second section argues that these qualities made public housing a target for privatisation and demunicipalisation policies that have recommodified and financialised housing and land for profit-seeking corporate interests. It was in this context that ‘outsourced regeneration’ featured in this book was born with the launch in 2000 of New Labour’s Decent Homes programme to bring all social housing in England up to a minimum decent standard by 2010. The chapter ends with an explanation of how the assault on public housing has been accompanied by the rolling back of building regulations and the rolling out of self-regulation that has weakened building safety and residents’ ability to hold their landlords to account.

Exclusion from financial services in the form of bank accounts has fallen and appears less significant than informal borrowing and problem debt, which have increased dramatically and are strongly ...
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Exclusion from financial services in the form of bank accounts has fallen and appears less significant than informal borrowing and problem debt, which have increased dramatically and are strongly associated with poverty. The most common arrears problems are with housing, local taxes and utility bills, not consumer credit. About a fifth of households are not poor but exhibit similar signs of financial stress. Family remains more important than ‘payday lenders’ as a source of informal lendng,underlining the importance of social capital
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Financial inclusion, financial stress and debt

Glen BramleyKirsten Besemer

Published in print: 2017-11-29

Exclusion from financial services in the form of bank accounts has fallen and appears less significant than informal borrowing and problem debt, which have increased dramatically and are strongly associated with poverty. The most common arrears problems are with housing, local taxes and utility bills, not consumer credit. About a fifth of households are not poor but exhibit similar signs of financial stress. Family remains more important than ‘payday lenders’ as a source of informal lendng,underlining the importance of social capital

Chapter Six maps remittance flows from London to migrants' home countries, highlighting the uneven nature of development in the world and the transnationality of finance. Beginning with a discussion ...
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Chapter Six maps remittance flows from London to migrants' home countries, highlighting the uneven nature of development in the world and the transnationality of finance. Beginning with a discussion on the importance of remittances in the contemporary global economy, the chapter highlights both national and international imperatives to formalise remittance sending practices which is attributed to both the migration-development and migration-security nexus. It highlights the diverse motivations which shape migrant men and women's remittance sending which range from altruism and moral obligation to a desire to accumulate transnational financial and material assets. The chapter then considers the mechanisms by which migrants send money back to their home countries, illustrating the importance of semi-formal and informal remittance sending practices in particular remittance corridors and the factors which lead to a preference for these over more formal remittance sending mechanisms. In so doing it questions global initiatives to financialise remittances.Less

Transnational money: the formalisation of migrant remittances

Kavita Datta

Published in print: 2012-04-18

Chapter Six maps remittance flows from London to migrants' home countries, highlighting the uneven nature of development in the world and the transnationality of finance. Beginning with a discussion on the importance of remittances in the contemporary global economy, the chapter highlights both national and international imperatives to formalise remittance sending practices which is attributed to both the migration-development and migration-security nexus. It highlights the diverse motivations which shape migrant men and women's remittance sending which range from altruism and moral obligation to a desire to accumulate transnational financial and material assets. The chapter then considers the mechanisms by which migrants send money back to their home countries, illustrating the importance of semi-formal and informal remittance sending practices in particular remittance corridors and the factors which lead to a preference for these over more formal remittance sending mechanisms. In so doing it questions global initiatives to financialise remittances.

Looming behind the formidable spectres haunting Europe is a rising tide of indebted households. This chapter focuses upon the United Kingdom, where a perfect storm of measures has caused a ...
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Looming behind the formidable spectres haunting Europe is a rising tide of indebted households. This chapter focuses upon the United Kingdom, where a perfect storm of measures has caused a fundamental change in the very meaning of ‘household debt’. In this chapter we focus upon the temporal frameworks of debt, challenging the dominant understanding of debt as imposing a ‘disciplinary’ framework of time upon the subject. Across two bodies of fieldwork – with the advice sector and with debtors – we trace not only the imposition, management and varied narratives of ‘disciplinary’ structurings of time, but also the ‘moments’ in which they crack, fragment, or are suspended. We show how the ways in which debt is sold, managed and collected, as well as the practices through which debtors consider multiple futures in their negotiations of debt, weave other forms of time into the indebted everyday. We show also how the stagnation and irregularity of household budgets renders the disciplinary edifice of debt increasingly unstable. Following the work of Lisa Adkins, we bring these non-disciplinary ‘moments’ together under the remit of ‘speculative time’.Less

‘Choose your moments’: discipline and speculation in the indebted everyday

Samuel KirwanLeila DawneyRosie Walker

Published in print: 2019-05-08

Looming behind the formidable spectres haunting Europe is a rising tide of indebted households. This chapter focuses upon the United Kingdom, where a perfect storm of measures has caused a fundamental change in the very meaning of ‘household debt’. In this chapter we focus upon the temporal frameworks of debt, challenging the dominant understanding of debt as imposing a ‘disciplinary’ framework of time upon the subject. Across two bodies of fieldwork – with the advice sector and with debtors – we trace not only the imposition, management and varied narratives of ‘disciplinary’ structurings of time, but also the ‘moments’ in which they crack, fragment, or are suspended. We show how the ways in which debt is sold, managed and collected, as well as the practices through which debtors consider multiple futures in their negotiations of debt, weave other forms of time into the indebted everyday. We show also how the stagnation and irregularity of household budgets renders the disciplinary edifice of debt increasingly unstable. Following the work of Lisa Adkins, we bring these non-disciplinary ‘moments’ together under the remit of ‘speculative time’.

This chapter introduces a phenomenon I call ‘digital subprime’. Digital subprime represents a frontier in lenders’ quest for predictive power, involving a growing group of technology startups who are ...
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This chapter introduces a phenomenon I call ‘digital subprime’. Digital subprime represents a frontier in lenders’ quest for predictive power, involving a growing group of technology startups who are entering subprime, payday lending markets in various countries and are lending at high rates of interest to borrowers who often have either poor or not credit histories. In this variant of consumer credit lending, diverse forms of data are processed through forms of algorithmic analysis in the attempt to better predict the repayment behaviour of individuals. This data often appears extremely mundane and to have very little to do with the credit product in hand. The chapter seeks to map the terrain of possibility represented by the diverse forms of data that are rendered accessible to lenders, partly as a basis for future research, and partly to highlight key developments in the present and future ontologies of money.Less

Digital subprime: tracking the credit trackers

Joe Deville

Published in print: 2019-05-08

This chapter introduces a phenomenon I call ‘digital subprime’. Digital subprime represents a frontier in lenders’ quest for predictive power, involving a growing group of technology startups who are entering subprime, payday lending markets in various countries and are lending at high rates of interest to borrowers who often have either poor or not credit histories. In this variant of consumer credit lending, diverse forms of data are processed through forms of algorithmic analysis in the attempt to better predict the repayment behaviour of individuals. This data often appears extremely mundane and to have very little to do with the credit product in hand. The chapter seeks to map the terrain of possibility represented by the diverse forms of data that are rendered accessible to lenders, partly as a basis for future research, and partly to highlight key developments in the present and future ontologies of money.

Housing has long been implicated in the productive economy, providing a focus for manufacturing, construction and material consumption. The privatisation, assetisation and financialisation of housing ...
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Housing has long been implicated in the productive economy, providing a focus for manufacturing, construction and material consumption. The privatisation, assetisation and financialisation of housing in the twentieth century has broadened and deepened its economic function. This chapter examines the changing profile of the UK economy and the greater centrality today of services related to real estate and debt securitisation. It explores the idea of a ‘credit switch’ in the latter half of the twentieth century into the financialised built environment and the implications of that switch for both the wider economy and public revenues. The chapter explores the broadening role of housing in the UK economy and implications for productivity, workplace earnings and housing affordability (relative to those earnings). The tax treatment of housing – and various instruments of financialisation - are presented as critical scaffolding for this economic shift, which is theorised/explained using a range of key literature.Less

Housing’s economic context

Nick Gallent

Published in print: 2019-04-01

Housing has long been implicated in the productive economy, providing a focus for manufacturing, construction and material consumption. The privatisation, assetisation and financialisation of housing in the twentieth century has broadened and deepened its economic function. This chapter examines the changing profile of the UK economy and the greater centrality today of services related to real estate and debt securitisation. It explores the idea of a ‘credit switch’ in the latter half of the twentieth century into the financialised built environment and the implications of that switch for both the wider economy and public revenues. The chapter explores the broadening role of housing in the UK economy and implications for productivity, workplace earnings and housing affordability (relative to those earnings). The tax treatment of housing – and various instruments of financialisation - are presented as critical scaffolding for this economic shift, which is theorised/explained using a range of key literature.